Huffman Encoding priority queue - c++

Question

I'm working on an assignment where I should write an encoding and decoding application for the Huffman algorithm, based on a priority queue. We have to read a file, count the frequencies of the letters and then start the algorithm. I have the following problem:
My counting function works fine but it stores the frequency of every letter in an array - even if it's zero. But if I want to use that array to build my min heap I get major problems because of the zeros. Therefore I need to find a way to 'eliminate' them. I can't just skip them because then the min heap algorithm doesn't work anymore (wrong neighbours). So I wanted to transfer all non-zero entries in a vector and use the vector instead of the array. But there I always get an error that tells me that there's a problem with the vector size. I don't really know how to deal with that problem. (My min heap still uses the array because I can't even transfer the entries in a vector).
(Please ignore the main I was just trying stuff there!)
using namespace std;
struct huffman_node
{ char data;
int frequency;
bool vector;
huffman_node *left;
huffman_node *right;
};
void swap_huffman_nodes(huffman_node &a, huffman_node &b)
{ char store_data = a.data;
int store_frequency = a.frequency;
a.data = b.data;
a.frequency=b.frequency;
b.data = store_data;
b.frequency = store_frequency;
huffman_node *store_left = a.left;
huffman_node *store_right= a.right;
a.left = b.left;
a.right = b.right;
b.left = store_left;
b.right = store_right;
}
void print_node (huffman_node a)
{ cout << a.data << a.frequency << endl;
}
string line;
huffman_node Table[52];
vector <huffman_node> non_zero;
void build_table()
{ for (int i=1; i<27; i++)
{ Table[i].data = (char) (i+64);
Table[i].left = NULL;
Table[i].right = NULL;
}
for (int i=27; i<53; i++)
{ Table[i].data = (char) (i+70);
Table[i].left = NULL;
Table[i].right = NULL;
}
}
int counter =0;
void count(){
ifstream yourfile ("example.txt");
if (yourfile.is_open())
{
while ( getline (yourfile,line) )
{
/*cout << line << '\n'; */
unsigned long z=line.length();
int i=0;
while ( i < z)
{ /* cout << line[i] << endl; */
for (int j=65; j<91; j++)
{ if ((int) line[i] == j)
{ int k=-64+j;
Table[k].frequency++;
}
}
for (int j=97; j<123; j++)
{ if ((int) line[i] == j)
{ int k=-70+j;
Table[k].frequency++;
}
}
i++;
}
}
for (int i=1; i<53; i++)
{ if (Table[i].frequency!=0)
{ non_zero.push_back(Table[i]);
counter ++;
}
}
yourfile.close();
}
else cout << "Unable to open file";
}
class heap{
public:
void buildheap()
{
for (int i=1; i<53; i++)
{reheap(i);
};
}
void reheap(int new_index)
{ int parent_index = new_index/2;
while (parent_index > 0 && Table[parent_index].frequency > Table[new_index].frequency)
{ swap_huffman_nodes(Table[parent_index], Table[new_index]);
parent_index=parent_index/2;
new_index=new_index/2;
}
};
void delete_root()
{ int non_null_entries=0;
for (int i=1; i<53; i++)
{ if (Table[i].frequency!=-1) {non_null_entries++;};
}
swap_huffman_nodes(Table[1],Table[non_null_entries]);
Table[non_null_entries].frequency=-1;
non_null_entries--;
rebuild_heap_root_deletion(1, non_null_entries);
}
void rebuild_heap_root_deletion(int new_root,int non_null_entries){
int n;
if (2 * new_root > non_null_entries){
return;
}
if (2 * new_root + 1 <= non_null_entries
&& Table[2*new_root+1].frequency < Table[2*new_root].frequency){
n = 2 * new_root + 1;
} else {
n = 2 * new_root;
}
if (Table[new_root].frequency > Table[n].frequency){
swap_huffman_nodes(Table[new_root], Table[n]);
rebuild_heap_root_deletion(n, non_null_entries);
}
}
void add_element(huffman_node new_heap_element)
{ for (int i=52; i>0;i-- )
{ if (Table[i].frequency==-1 && Table[i-1].frequency!=-1)
{ Table[i]=new_heap_element;
reheap(i);
break;
}
}
}
void print_Table()
{
for (int i=1; i<53; i++)
{ /*if (Table[i].frequency != -1) */
cout << Table[i].frequency << " , " << Table[i].data << endl;
}
}
bool empty_heap() // a heap is empty here if there are only "invalid huffman nodes" in it except the first one that contains all information.
{ for (int i=2; i < 53; i++)
{ if (Table[i].frequency!=-1)
{ return false;}
}
return true;
}
};
int main(){
ofstream myfile ("example.txt");
if (myfile.is_open())
{
myfile << "Flori ist ein Koala.";
myfile << "";
myfile.close();
}
else cout << "Unable to open file";
build_table();
count();
heap allan;
cout << "\n";
allan.buildheap();
allan.print_Table();
int i=0;
/*while(i<500)
{
huffman_node base_1 = Table[1];
allan.delete_root();
huffman_node base_2 = Table[1];
allan.delete_root();
huffman_node parent;
parent.data = '/';
parent.frequency = base_1.frequency + base_2.frequency;
parent.left = &base_1;
parent.right = &base_2;
allan.add_element(parent);
i++;
}
return 0;
}